Krita is one of the most powerful free digital painting tools available today. Artists around the world use it for illustration, concept art, comics, and even animation. If you are new to digital art or switching from another software, this beginner guide will help you understand the core tools and features of Krita so you can start painting with confidence.
Table of Contents
What is Krita and Why Artists Prefer It
Krita is an open source digital painting software created specifically for artists. It focuses on painting and drawing, offering a natural brush feel, a smooth workspace and a large collection of tools that support professional artwork. Unlike traditional photo editing programs, Krita is optimized for strokes, layers, color blending and digital illustration workflows. Beginners choose it because it is free, lightweight and easy to learn, while professionals use it because of its advanced brush engines and customizable tools.
How to Set Up Your Canvas in Krita
Once you open Krita, your first step is creating a canvas. Click on File and then New. Krita gives you multiple templates for illustrations, comics and animation. You can select a standard canvas like 1920×1080 pixels or choose A4 or Letter size for print work. Understanding canvas resolution is important. For digital art, 72 to 150 DPI works well, while for print art you should choose 300 DPI to ensure high-quality details.
Choosing the right canvas size helps you avoid blurry or pixelated results when zoomed in or exported. Beginners usually start with a 2000×2000 pixel canvas because it offers space to draw without slowing down performance.
Understanding Krita’s Interface
Krita’s interface is designed to stay out of your way while you draw. The main tools are on the left side where you will find the brush tool, eraser, selection tools, shape tools and more. On the right side, you will see layers, brush presets and color selectors.
The canvas area is clean and allows you to zoom, rotate or pan using simple shortcuts. Press Space to pan the canvas. Hold Shift and scroll to rotate. Use Ctrl and scroll to zoom. These controls make it easier to sketch naturally without breaking your flow.
How Krita Brushes Work
The brush engine is one of the strongest features of Krita. There are more than a hundred brush presets such as pencil, ink, watercolor, chalk, airbrush and texture brushes. You can access the brush preset docker on the right or press F6 to open the brush editor.
Brush settings like size, opacity and flow can be adjusted from the top toolbar. It also supports pressure sensitivity for drawing tablets, giving you a natural and expressive drawing experience. Beginners should experiment with simple brushes like Basic-5 Size or Pencil-2B before exploring more advanced ones.
Using Layers for Better Control
Layers are essential in digital art because they allow you to separate different parts of your artwork. For example, you can keep your sketch on one layer, line art on another and colors on a separate layer. This makes editing easy because you can erase or modify one layer without affecting the rest of the drawing.
Krita layers include paint layers, vector layers, group layers, filter layers and masks. Paint layers are used for normal drawing. Vector layers are for clean line art created with vector tools. Filter layers apply effects like blur or sharpen. Masks allow you to hide or reveal parts of a layer without erasing anything permanently.
Color Selection and Painting Techniques
Krita offers multiple color selection tools. The most commonly used is the advanced color selector on the right side. It displays the hue wheel and values for saturation and brightness. You can also use the pop up palette by pressing the right click on the canvas which gives you quick access to your favorite brushes and colors.
To start painting, create a new layer under your line art and fill the base colors using the brush or fill tool. After that, add shadows and highlights using soft brushes or textured brushes. Krita’s blending modes allow you to create realistic lighting effects. For example, Multiply is great for shadows and Overlay works well for highlights.
Essential Shortcuts for Beginners
Krita’s shortcuts speed up your workflow. B selects the brush tool. E converts the brush into an eraser. R is for color picker. Ctrl Z undoes your last action. These shortcuts help you draw faster and more comfortably.
Saving and Exporting Your Artwork
When you finish your illustration, save your editable file as a .kra file. This format stores layers and can be reopened anytime. For sharing your artwork on social media or printing, export it as PNG or JPEG using File and then Export.
Conclusion
Krita is a complete digital painting solution that gives beginners all the tools they need to start drawing immediately. From brushes and layers to color tools and shortcuts, every feature is designed to make your art process smooth and enjoyable. With this beginner guide, you now understand the basics of Krita and can start exploring more advanced tools and techniques to improve your digital art skills. Also Check How to Create Seamless Patterns in Krita – 2025
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